


Bleeding Stars

by CyanideRadiance



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hurt/Comfort, I'm in AU hell, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Jedi, Minor Violence, Soulmates, Star Wars AU, Star Wars Extended Universe - Freeform, and callum is horny minus the horns, force skype with the worst timing ever, in which rayla is horny, senator callum, short chapters rip my writing style, sith rayla, someone send help i cant stop, star wars legends - Freeform, they're a mess but so am i, will update tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:48:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22258966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyanideRadiance/pseuds/CyanideRadiance
Summary: His eyes scanned her body in hungry wonder."What?" she whispered, moving to cover herself. He reached out to stop her."You're glowing... Your skin is stardust," he murmured, fingers lightly pressing against her. "Just... falling from my hands."Trained in the dark side of the Force, Lady Lune was an unstoppable shadow, working in the name of the Empire as the elusive Right Hand. At the behest of Emperor Viren, she chases her target, Sentaor Callum Ka'ati, across space. Everything changes with a chance encounter, a strange bond spanning the galaxy, and the fires of war. An unlikely allegiance could be the key to balance, but secrets in the stars could destroy it all.
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 145
Kudos: 194





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I'm back on my AU bs. I can't stop lol. This has been in my head since summer of last year, so my dream has finally come to fruition. There is a lot of lore I tossed in here, so if nothing is clear, feel free to let me know! Some of it is from stuff Disney discounted and some of it is from Disney's SW.  
> Idk what's going on, but enjoy!!
> 
> thanks p for beta-ing

_A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…_

Music thrummed through her body, and she nearly couldn’t help the way she moved in time with it. She felt the weight of hundreds of eyes in the cantina gracing against her curves, following the changing dips of her arms and hips.

So many of them wanted to touch her.

She was a rare and coveted Xadian, easily told apart from her companions by the markings across her skin, her four fingers and toes, and the horns gracing her head.

She’d always heard the stories people told of her kind. Of Moonshadow elves. Movement was in their blood, sensuality written upon their veins.

The customers were hungry. She could sense it.

But she was hungrier than they were. And far more dangerous, too.

The adornments on her body jangled in time to the beat. She spun, surveying the room with disgust. If only they knew the power surging within her, begging to be freed. They wouldn’t look at her like a novelty. A temporary toy to be destroyed under the weight of their sweaty palms.

She ran her hands up along her sides and into the air.

It would be so easy to kill them. They’d never have to touch another soul and spread their filth.

She considered it again, feeling the metal chains of another dancer brush against her as they twirled together and apart.

But she couldn’t. She was on a mission, and she couldn’t afford stirring up more trouble after the last one.

She spotted the hooded figure just as the music tapered off. She stayed in position, hand reaching up to the stars she’d so often flown by. If she could just collect them, be born anew…

Her chest heaved as she gave herself a moment to catch her breath. It was time for the dancers to rotate and take a break. It was cruel and endless work, but she only had to endure for a bit longer. She watched the other girls, and she struggled to hide her frown. They were here until death one had whispered to her in the corner of the backrooms.  She was only here until she had new information on her target or perhaps until she had his severed head.

She beelined towards where the hooded figure had disappeared to, doing her best to avoid contact with anyone. It was much cooler on stage, she noted idly. But her job never had a place for luxuries.

She’d been across the galaxy, and never was her comfort taken into consideration.

The deserts of Tatooine and Jakku and Geonosis. The snowy Hoth and Ilum and Csilla. The oceanic Mon Cala and Kamino and Quila.

The list went on, from the tropics to the gas planets to everything in between.

She paused at the bar, slamming her hand down when she realized the cloaked figure was gone.

Fuck, Rayla hated the galaxy.

“Al’rya, interested in a Fuzzy Tauntaun or Jawa Juice?” The bartender asked her, although he was busy watching his customers.

She shrugged, taking a second to recognize her fake name. She wanted something fast and ugly. “Got any Dust Juice?” She spun, pressing her back against the cold lining of the countertop.

Fen wrinkled his nose. “It’s not the first thing I’d suggest, but if that’s what you want...”

He slid a shot over to her. She raised it to him in a silent thanks. Tossing her head back and the drink with her, she felt the burn all the way to her stomach. It curled up somewhere deep within, waking up her senses that had seemed to dull in her performance. She slammed the glass down, renewed warmth on her fingers.

She continued onward, head held high in a vision of aloofness. No one dared to touch her, although she knew they wanted to. But there were too many eyes eager for danger, and trouble with a Xadian dancer meant trouble with the cantina owner.

Rayla finally entered the barren halls, slipping past the guards with a wave of her hand and a muttered, “You didn’t see me.”

They straightened and nodded. “I didn’t see you,” they parroted.

She rounded a corner just in time to watch something pass into a closing door. She narrowed her eyes at the hood, her hand inching towards her primary lightsaber she had hidden beneath the band of her skirt. A shout echoed behind them, and the person turned.

She dashed forward, ramming her lighted saber through his midsection. The sound of burning flesh and its putrid smell filled her head. The hood fell back, and she frowned. She didn’t recognize this Togruta. Then where was her target?

The walls seemed to shake, debris falling from the ceiling. Her stomach sank. She snapped up the holowatch hanging against her hip, thankful it was easy to hide amongst all the other things that had been sewn in.

“What the  _ fuck  _ do you fools think you’re doing up there!” she snarled at Commander Kasef’s smirking face.

“You were taking too long. And there are a number of valuable assets milling around in that cesspool you call a workplace.”

She scoffed. “My workplace is wherever Emperor Viren orders me to go. But I suppose you would know nothing about that. All you do is lick at the boots of the Sith Witch in hopes her father will one day recognize you.”

His face went red and she could see the anger building up inside of him. Her smile was vicious as she hung up, knowing it would make him all the more furious.

She immediately pinged the Sith Witch. Darth Dia appeared, in the midst of braiding the white portion of her hair. “The Emperor’s Hand.” Her smile was soft. It always made Rayla uncomfortable how sweet and generally mild-mannered the Sith Lord was. She was powerful and dangerous, yellow eyes careful and considering.

Rayla had a feeling Darth Dia would one day surpass her father. The thought was unnerving. Emperor Viren was so powerful, it was hard to imagine anyone stronger than him.

“I hear Commander Kasef took some temporal liberties?” Darth Dia said, staring at something beyond the holovid.

She rubbed her forehead. “How much time do I have before the second wave deploys?”

“Did you not read your mission briefing? I believe the itinerary was on there.”

“I believe the mission briefing also said the attack would begin when I was  _ off the planet. _ ” She began towards one of the hidden exits, snatching her boots and pack along the way from one of the rooms. She fished her blaster out and hooked it on her belt.

Darth Dia laughed and gave a conceding nod. “Father will not be pleased. Ten minutes.” The hologram shuttered off, and Rayla cursed.

Would she even be able to find her ship in ten minutes?

One day, she’d kill Kasef if no one else did it first.

She dodged the chaos, fingers tapping periodically against her trigger. She was ready to hip fire at any given moment. As she neared her ship, the shouts increased. They were preparing to begin their attack from the sky. Her stomach sank. If she found a single scratch on her ship, there would be hell to pay.

She made her way to the outside ship dock, a new acidic smell filling the air, not unlike that of the lightsaber wound she had just inflicted. Stormtrooper bodies littered the area, and her skin prickled uneasily.

The air began to vibrate, a hum beginning to build within her. The Force was moving in a way she’d never experienced before.

_ Something… Something wasn’t right. _

She moved forward, abandoning her blaster in favor of hovering over her twin lightsabers. A lone figure stood amidst the wreckage of white armored bodies.

Chills went down her spine in anticipation. Was this who she had been after? Had the Force placed him into her eager palms?

She nearly laughed at the irony of it all. She’d been in this decrepit outpost for almost two weeks waiting for him. And now he was to be handed to her on a platter?

Senator Callum Ka’ati, second in line for the crown of Katolis.

They said he was dangerously good with a gun, but the sea of bodies around them was nothing short of extraordinary. She lit her twin blades, and the figure spun. Rayla was stunned for a moment, familiarity clinging to her like an unwanted second skin.

She didn’t know him, of course.

She  _ couldn’t  _ have.

They were strangers.

But there were flashes of images behind her eyes. Skin upon skin, breath warming up the infinite cold within her body. A forbidden nectar slid down her throat, wild and intoxicating. Her name was whispered against her neck and other dark places, igniting a black fire that threatened to consume her. The slight pain, the vibrant but delicate pounding in her pulses made her heady.

She danced among the stars, clothed herself in the velvet emptiness of space. Welcomed him to swirl with her, paint the galaxy anew with their reckless abandon. He spun among the moons, stealing the planets to drape across his body in liquid power.

They were brilliant binary stars, daring to outshine the universe with the stardust they together had created.

She wanted to crawl out of her own body and find new skin enough to accommodate the presence of them both.

She cried out in pain, clutching at her temple.

The sensations were too much.

And then there was a sort of electric snap. It was so sudden and almost violent. She nearly dropped her weapons. When her vision cleared, he looked as dumbfounded as she felt. His mouth fell open, sweat dripping along his brow. A quick tongue darted out to lick his lips as darkened viridian scanned her form.

His chest mirrored hers, rapidly moving up and down as each tried to find their footing in this galaxy that was now a stranger to them.

But he had to die.

It was as the Emperor willed it.

Before she had a chance to move, more troopers marched the area. “Ser!” one chimed, moving to her side. Rayla felt the charge building in their blasters and reacted without second thought.

She slashed at the ones nearest to her, the crimson glow of her saber coloring the rest of her world. She slid forward dirt scraping against her exposed skin. 

She supposed most dancers weren’t fighters. But she was no dancer.

She ducked under the wild swing of a trooper, sweeping another with a kick of her legs. She slashed at an arm, ramming her blades into two armored chests. A shot went off somewhere to her left, and she moved a hand forward. The bolt halted moments before it would’ve contacted the senator.

They stayed in place, her holding the shot and him pointing his blaster at her. She swore she could feel his puffs of breath against her face as he murmured against the corners of her mind. But that was impossible.

They were frozen in time, and she feared when they would be released from this unnatural state. It was almost like a carbon-freezing without the liquid carbonite.

The ground beside them exploded, and the connection went with it. She threw her arms up, holding back the falling debris as she struggled into her ship, the Force surging within her. 

Kasef had begun the Empire’s airstrike.

She was deadly silent as she navigated across debris, jerkily punching in the right controls. Eventually she was clear, cruising towards Dromund Kaas of the Sith Worlds region. It was her chosen planet of base, oceans, jungles, and swamps the closest to the forests of home. Every other planet this far out lacked the personality she had been searching for. And it was close enough to Lord Viren’s home planet of Exegol that he let her be

In the safety of her ship and in the vacuum of space, she slammed at the walls, screaming into the dark oblivion until she had nothing left within her.

She had let him go.

Her chance at freedom, and she had  _ let him go _ .


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the kind words! Here is ch2! I apologize if the chapters seem short... It's because they are lol. I've come to realize I work best in 1k-2k chunks, so that's unfortunately what yall are stuck with. I'm going to try and begin posting every Friday (and I do realize it isn't Friday today...). See you next week!

Rayla bowed before the throne, nails biting into her skin. Not for the first time, she found herself eternally grateful for the partial mask she sometimes wore.

“And there were no traces of him?” Emperor Viren hissed.

“No, my lord.” She raised her head a notch, barely enough to watch the way his nails rasped against his chair. He could use some moisturizer. And a nail trimming.

Or perhaps just new hands and nails.

Rather, an entirely new body would do.

She smirked at the thought. He was in a state of never-ending decay. It was a wonder his limbs hadn’t started falling off yet. Or maybe they had, and she’d just never noticed as the broken pieces of him had been continually replaced. Were his fingers different colors than that of his palm, or was she just seeing things?

His words from years ago echoed in the back of her mind. _My child, have you ever heard the tale of Darth Aaravos the Startouched?_

She may have feared him, but that didn’t make him prettier.

“You must keep searching. If what our spies say is true, then the boy is in possession of information that could kill us all.”

She nodded, swallowing thickly as she remembered the heat of the senator’s eyes on her.

“You feel it again, don’t you?” The Emperor’s voice dropped precariously, daring her to lie. “The light still calls to you.”

All air in the room was sucked out, held hostage within his grasp.

He was disappointed in her.

She shook her head sharply. “My lord.” She wanted to deny it. He wouldn’t be pleased. But if she lied, he’d know.

She’d always struggled. It was why Emperor Viren said she could never truly be a Sith. She had yet to reject the light within herself, but she fought best she could.

“Tell me what you hear, child.” He sounded so kind. As if he truly cared. Maybe some distant part of him did, but she knew there was always an ulterior motive. She just had yet to find it.

Her heart began to pound uncomfortably.

At her silence, he fell back against his chair.

She scrambled to get the words out. “I don’t _hear_ anything. I’m just plagued with dreams. I can’t make sense of them, and they are always gone in the morning.”

Her head was a jumbled mess every time she awoke. Fleeting sensations, light stained across her mind that took hours to shake.

“By the grace of your training,” she vowed, “I will not fall.”

He scoffed, “My child, there is much conflict within you. Perhaps a visit to the Dark Force Temple shall cleanse you of your affliction.”

Again, she felt her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth. That was the last place she wanted to be next to _here._

“Unless…” He stood slowly, agonizingly crept down the steps to stand before her. He caressed her face, and it took everything in her to not shy away from his cold touch. “You don’t want to?” He yanked her mask off, throwing it across the floor.

She just barely flinched, following his robes slightly shuffling across the marble. “I will go at your soonest convenience, my lord.” Needles stabbed relentlessly against her eyes, but she’d learned long ago that weakness only welcomed cruelty.

“Lady Lune, the world whispers in admiration and fear of you.” He dipped down, fabric brushing against her arm. “But you are no more than a frail child in a mask,” he snarled next to her ear. He made his way back to his seat, waving her away.

She clenched her jaw and exited the room, a guard coming out with her mask a few moments later. She snatched it from their hands, wanting nothing more than to throw it at the ground and watch it shatter into nothingness.

 _Lady Lune_ , she mocked silently, stalking towards the ship hangar. But he didn’t know. _None_ of them knew how closely she held her real name to her heart. It should’ve been a dead name, but she clung to it, nonetheless. If she lost _Rayla,_ then she feared she would disappear along with it.

As the elevator behind her closed, she cried out in frustration, driving her mask into the protective caging. It cracked beneath her strength, small bits falling at her feet. Her stubborn and stupid refusal to let her old self die was just another step that kept her from full embracing the dark side. And probably urged her towards the light. But she’d be damned if she let it all go.

Emperor Viren couldn’t have everything. It was her own brand of rebellion, small but _hers_.

Much as she hated going, the Dark Force Temple would help redirect the storm within her. At least it was on Dromund Kaas. Her journey into the depth of her own bed would be short.

Statues, seeming to reach into the sky, lined the walkway into the temple. Beings milled about, and there was a murky cloud within the Force. It sucked any light within, recycling it as darkness anew.

The dreadful temple was a powerful Force nexus.

Rayla had taken many precautions to ensure her home base was clear on the other side of the planet. The dark energy often left her weak and with nightmares for weeks. It had been years since the Emperor had forced her to step across the blackened soil and stone of this place.

The spires of the temple cast an encompassing shadow, and she wondered how often the sunlight penetrated through the chipped stonework. She craned her neck back as a lightning storm began. The constant flashing made everything seemed distorted, but she wasn’t surprised. They were common here.

Some of the black-bearded Prophets of the Dark Side welcomed Rayla as she finally entered. They were constantly sifting through futures, trying to predict the Rebellion’s moves before they were made. To her knowledge, they’d never done anything useful. Maybe it was more of a traditional thing than a practical thing to keep them around? Emperor Viren loved keeping appearances.

“Lady Lune,” one whispered once he fell into step with her. “We were not aware of your coming.”

She nearly rolled her eyes. “Then I suppose you guys are not very good prophets.” She wasn’t surprised no one had told them. Emperor Viren did as he pleased. Everyone else was left to follow suit blindly.

“If we had known, we could have cleared some of the—”

She shook her head before he could say more, rolling her eyes. “I don’t care. Just continue on as if I wasn’t here.”

“Of course, Lady Sith. Can we retrieve anything for you? Any labs you wanted to visit? Perhaps you would be interested in—”

She rounded on him, hand raised as she clamped his lips shut easily with the extra thrumming of the Force. “Did you not just hear what I said? Fuck. Off.” She released him and stormed away towards the meditation chambers.

Rayla snorted as she climbed up the spire. _It’s no wonder the prophets are all men. Nothing ever gets done here._

When she neared the top, chanting began from some of the other rooms. She never understood what was said nor what language was used. She’d also stopped caring. The darkened place she entered was lit only by black and red candles. The flames whipped to an invisible wind. On and off, shadows twitching in and out of existence.

Goosebumps broke out across her arms, and her head began to pound.

She’d never tried to _do_ anything in the temple. It’s not like anyone knew the difference between her lounging around and mentally griping for a few hours compared to actually meditating. Yet, as she closed her eyes, she fell backwards into a blackhole.

She clawed at nothing, trying to stop her descent. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Was she dying? Had the darkness come to sweep her away into _nothingness?_

“No!” she gasped out. “Stop!”

Excruciating pain blossomed within her chest. She just wanted it all to end. Agonized cries filled her head as kyber crystals rained down, red and unforgiving.

Would she ever be whole again?

The air had been squeezed out of her lungs. Her veins twisted to cut off circulation to the rest of her body.

Tears poured from her eyes as the pain became unbearable.

She broke apart.

Light burst forth from nowhere, so strong it blinded her. She tried to blink away the blots of stars that had formed, but nothing happened.

Arms wrapped around her body, gentle palms snaking under her clothes. The aches ebbed away with every inch the soothing fingers crawled across, sewing her back together painstakingly. Forgiving nails brushing against concealed summits. Her back bowing in response.

She gasped, desperately looking for something, _anything_ , in the never-ending brightness to ground herself. She was beginning to panic despite the prickles of illicit pleasure spiked through her blood.

“ _Don’t be scared,”_ he coaxed sweetly.

Her stomach flipped over. She knew exactly who it was, but she refused to put a name to him. Because then it made this _real_.

_“Just breathe.”_

A feral pressure built within her, burning bright as a star somewhere low in her stomach. Anticipation made invisible walls around her fluttered in time with her body.

“What—” She couldn’t speak. Her mind was fragmented, rich caramel binding the pieces loosely. “I don’t—Oh!” Her head fell back.

“ _Just breathe, Ra—”_

She gasped, nearly a groan as the world heaved back into focus. She struggled to her feet, feeling like she was moving underwater. Her hands slapped against the floor and the walls to reorient herself.

When she glanced at the mirror, Senator Callum Ka’ati of Katolis was staring back at her for a moment too long to be her imagination.

She turned away, rubbing her arms vigorously. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she whispered harshly to herself. She needed to go home, away from this damned temple.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much everyone who has read and commented. I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far!  
> It is decidedly NOT Friday, but Wednesday again... But I can't keep my days straight, so w/e.
> 
> I have a sort of request... I would love it if yall commented things you want to see in this fic. Are there specific planets or planet types? Specific species or aspects of SW lore? Possible missions you want to see Rayla or Callum partake in? Whatever in general?  
> I can't promise the suggestions will all be used or written as you expected them, but I'd love to take inspiration (like as soon as the next chapter possibly)!  
> Aaaaanyways... Onward we go!
> 
> As a sidenote, the droid in this chapter is based off of the R-models so think recolored R2D2.

Rayla stared down at the factory world of Lotho Minor. Reports of a stolen file off an Imperial ship had trickled up to Lord Viren. Annoyed, he’d sent her off to find the source of the leak.

Soren was somewhere behind her, meant to do _something_ with the data if they ever found it. Copy and erase it? Change it to confuse their enemies? She wasn’t sure. But she knew he was listening in across different frequencies to see if they could catch hints of where to begin their search.

While he was hard at work, she was busy trying to quell the tsunami building dangerously against her chest. Something was going on in the Force, but she wasn’t sure what. Her hands clacked across keys to flip through holograms in a weak attempt to distract. The profiles were filled with information on smugglers and possible rebels that frequented the planet and its moons.

Soren appeared, and the current profile she was looking at, some Princess General Janai, shrunk down. “Lady Lune.” He inclined his head. “I found evidence of activity down in the sector known as the Wasteland. What would you like to do?”

She narrowed her eyes as a map of the planet appeared, some place by the northern pole blinking. “We go get our shit back.” She clicked him off and began her descent.

R7-C7 beeped somewhere behind her. She turned to the astromech and frowned. “Sorry, Sev. You can’t go with me. I don’t want someone stealing you.”

The teal and black droid whistled forlornly, but it made no difference to her.

“Remember Tatooine? You were about to be torn apart as salvage if I hadn’t tracked you down. We are not having any repeats of that on this dumpster planet.”

Lotho was used as a dumping ground by the surrounding planets. She’d never been on Lotho, and she hadn’t wanted to be. Their waterways were nothing more than toxic sludge, the fog was thick and smelled awful, and the main inhabitants of the planet were hostiles.

R7 made another sound.

Rayla sighed and rubbed her forehead. “If you thought the Jawas were bad, I can’t imagine what the Junkers would do to you.”

She was hoping to get through this encounter without meeting any Junkers. They were scavengers, cybernetically enhancing their bodies with the scraps they found amongst the junk. They were territorial and vicious. She wasn’t afraid, but she wasn’t in the mood for killing things.

She maneuvered herself down onto one of the rare ship docks. Salvage operations ran as others tried to find usable and valuable parts in the mess. At least her possessions were moderately safe parked here for the time being.

“Stay here. I’ll be back. If anyone tries to get into the ship, take it into orbit.”

An affirmative chirp.

She met with Soren as he gazed around them. “It’s like a graveyard,” he observed.

She turned to survey the landscape, despite the billowing winds. The yellowed fog whipped around them along with bits of debris, limiting her sight. She raised an arm to block at least some of the things hitting against her face from the fierce gusts. She reached for her belt and found what she was looking for. Her mask slid over her face with a small click as it locked. Immediately, she was able to breathe better. There was nothing much to be done about the visibility though.

She craned her neck back. The mountains were on fire as they rose all around them, but they weren’t made of land. Instead, they were piles of ships and other junk, reaching towards the atmosphere. The sky was a foreboding rust color as smoke plumes faded into it.

She wrinkled her nose. It smelled like sulfur and rot even with her mask. “An industrial junkyard,” she confirmed. “So where are we going?”

“We got several hits across this region, so we can just split them up.” He glanced at her and wiggled his brows. “Unless you’re scared and need me to protect you?”

Her eye twitched. “If you get eaten or otherwise become indisposed on this planet, that’s _your_ problem.”

“I expect nothing less, Lady Lune. I’ll take the eastern ones.” His laughter echoed as she stalked away, studying the map projected from her holowatch.

Several points were blinking at her. There were ten different ones with small descriptions next to them. Could Soren not have narrowed it down to one or two? She huffed, trying to navigate around the tumbling pieces along the ground. It was impressive that there was room to walk at all.

The wind picked up, and she nearly tumbled into the closest wall of trash. A new metallic scent filled the air, but she couldn’t really place it. Rayla continued forward, intent on ignoring the warnings.

It felt like she had followed the snaking paths for hours. The first two locations had been a bust. She’d encountered nothing more than groups of Junkers that she’d taken care of rather quickly when it became apparent they weren’t going to leave her alone.

From her earpiece, R7 beeped at her, but the connection was weak.

“I can’t understand you. What about the sky?”

A violent hiss began, and she tilted her head back just as the noise in her earpiece went silent. The sky had darkened.

She stretched her hand our curiously.

_Rain?_

An arm wrapped around her waist as she was jerked back into the debris. The force knocked the wind out of her even as fireworks exploded along the area of contact.

Immediately, her palm slammed down on the offending forearm as she spun to face her attacker. Her lit lightsabers were poised and ready to take down more Junkers.

But she knew.

She’d known as soon as she’d entered the atmosphere and placed her feet along the ground.

The figure raised their hands, blaster dangling. She shifted just slightly. The movement prompted them to quickly drop their hood.

She rushed forward, sabers hovering above his neck.

Nebulas stared into her soul as she desperately tried to throw up her mental defenses. She could feel him probing against her curiously within the Force.

“So, you finally found me.”

Her voice had been stolen, held captive somewhere within his fiery gaze.

“Or I guess _I_ found _you_.”

Was he _teasing_ her?

“I’ll kill you,” she snarled in warning, tightening her grip.

His head tilted back and away from her weapons. His eyes narrowed as he stared down at her. Senator Ka’ati smirked, face awash in the crimson glow of her lightsabers. A gentle nudge within her mind. “No… You won’t.”

But she would.

She _had_ to.

It was the only way Emperor Viren would ever let her have more freedom.

“You’ll never get what you want,” he whispered. He dropped his blaster into its holder.

She shook her head, fury pumping beneath her skin. “You don’t know a thing about me and what I want.”

Gloves wrapped around her covered wrist, encouraging her to drop her weapons. “We both know that’s a lie.”

Her hands began to shake, her knuckles leaching of color. A flick of her wrist was all it would take to kill him. Then she could walk away in peace knowing she had completed her ultimate mission.

But something was stopping her.

Or rather _someone_.

Even through all the layers of fabric between them, she could feel the vibrant life within him. Tainted with beautiful blackened honey. Perilous and enticing. The paradox called to her own inner vicious battle.

His intense stare softened suddenly, and the gentle steel in his eyes acted as a blow to her knees.

No one had ever looked at her like that.

Her throat tightened, and she was infinitely glad her face was hidden beneath her mask.

“Why did you pull me in?” The skin beneath her breasts still smoldered from where he had gripped her. Was there a little waver in her voice, or had she just imagined it?

He pointed above them. It was then she noticed the hissing noises were accompanied by a steady patter. But she had no idea what the sounds were from.

“Acid rain,” he said. “It’s deadly here.”

He had saved her?

At her silence, he continued. “It would have killed you. It eats away at most armor and skin very easily.”

His fingers around her tightened as he tried to coax her blades away from his neck once more. She pulled back just barely, screaming at herself to end their misery already. There was no point in conversing with him any further when his head was to soon be separated from his body.

“I…”

Why hadn’t he left her to die?

It was as illogical as her leaving him unharmed.

He made an amused sound. “There’s no need to thank me. I know you would do the same if the roles had been reversed.”

She growled and shoved him back into the wall of metal behind them. Her lightsabers dug into the various pieces, melting perfect holes on either side of his neck.

“I wouldn’t,” she hissed.

“Of course.” He had the audacity to wink at her.

She had only spared his life so she could escape safely. It had been for her own gain. _Nothing more, nothing less,_ she told herself sternly.

Her holowatch beeped with a message notification, but she ignored it. “I’m going to ask you some questions, and then you die. Understand?”

“It's not here.” He gestured around them. "The leaked information and the person that leaked it. It was all a lie. A diversion of some sort, but I'm not sure why."

“Liar!” But she knew he wasn’t. She felt it, as surely as she felt his hand once more on hers. “What did the Rebellion send you out here to do?”

She brought her face up to his, almost wishing her mask wasn’t between them. What would it feel like to have their breaths intertwine? To feel his puffs of air along the contours of her face? To practically taste his sweat against her tongue?

“To be a part of the Rebellion is illegal,” he said as if it answered her question. “Can you shut your lightsabers off?”

“Don’t test my patience, Senator,” she warned.

He leaned as close as he could get without cutting himself. His words slightly fogged over her visor. “Please.”

The fight drained out of her. She clicked her twin blades off and stepped away from him. He clutched at her a moment longer before his hands fell away to his side.

“Callum,” he said after another long pause.

She tilted her head. “Huh?”

“Call me Callum.”

Chills scurried brutally across her skin, leaving an invisible trail of icy stings across her body. His name writhed along the tip of her tongue, begging for release. But she forced it down with a swallow. Something within her quivered, toeing between painful and pleasant.

She shook her head slowly at a loss. Words were stuck somewhere in the back of her throat.

He glanced down. “You know, I was told to kill you if I ever had the chance.” He rubbed his neck with a strange laugh. “As if I could do that after taking one damned look at you. Is that something all Sith can do, or are you just special?”

She snorted, crossing her arms. What game was he trying to play with her? “I’m not even a Sith.”

“No?”

She licked her lips and took a deep breath. She shouldn’t be telling him anything. Talking to him like they were old friends just catching up in the middle of a galactic junkyard. “Why are you here?”

“The same reason you are, I imagine. We heard news of information leaks on Lotho, but all the leads are cold. So are all the leads on Korriban and Mandalore, so don’t bother with them. It seems they were faked. Mandalorians will try to kill you if they know you’re Imperial.”

“Why are you telling me this?” She had forgotten her next stops were the planets Korriban and Mandalore. Someone must’ve reported the same new to both the Rebellion and the Empire. She had no idea _why,_ but she supposed it had something to do with credits. Money made people do the stupidest of things.

She hated knowing he was being honest. It meant she and Soren had wasted a lengthy trip. Especially since she couldn’t tell the general going to the other two planets was futile because of false information. When he’d ask how she knew, what was she to say?

_Oh, you know. Ran into Senator Ka’ati, the guy I’m supposed to kill. He told me none of the information we got was correct. Isn’t that funny? And no, I didn’t kill him._

_I let him go_.

And she would.

She was _going_ to.

For no other reason than the possibility that he could lead her to a Rebel base.

She tilted her head up to the ceiling of metal, pit in her stomach growing. She traced invisible patterns as warning wiggled against the back of her mind.

“Whatever operations you have on Alderaan should be moved,” she blurted out.

He stepped towards her, and she startled a bit, snapping her head back down to watch him. He parroted her earlier words, “Why are you telling me this?”

Her holowatch dinged.

 _Soren_.

Her heart began to pound, horrified at her unbidden actions. No one would know of her insubordination, but _she_ knew. And she was painfully aware of the possible consequences she could be faced with.

Leaking information to the Rebellion was extremely illegal. Emperor Viren would have her killed for much less than this.

But he had plans for the planet Alderaan. Deadly plans that she didn’t want to come to fruition.

 _I’m not a traitor,_ she berated herself. _I just…_

She took a deep breath. She had just wanted to avoid the inevitable cleaning up she would have to do if Emperor Viren’s idea was successful.

Three more dings.

She turned away and opened her holowatch. Soren gave her an odd look, eyes flicking beyond her frame. But he couldn’t see the Senator from the angle she was at. She snapped, “I’m going back. They were all a bust.” She shut his hologram down before he could say anything.

“Be careful out there,” the Senator whispered behind her.

She tensed, feeling as if a poke could break her into pieces. “Next time I see you, you’re dead,” she warned lowly.

His laughter brushed against the back of her neck. “Whatever you say… _Rayla_.”

_What?_

She whipped around, but he had already disappeared. Her heart was threatening to break free from its cage of bones and chase after him. Metal splinters poked agonizingly at her eyes as she struggled to remain composed.

How _dare_ he?

She tried to hide the mounting panic with anger, but it was like scalding water had been dumped upon her, ghostly burns excruciating. She remained rooted to the spot, hoping the feeling would dissipate.

How did he know? _How did he know?_

She clutched desperately at her name, hiding it close to her heart. So close it nearly disappeared beneath all the lies she had built Lady Lune upon.

And just like that, he’d decimated her defenses.

She yanked her mask off, beginning to hyperventilate. She grasped at her body violently, trying to ground herself.

Distantly, she recognized the sound of Soren calling her again.

Her hands scrubbed brutally across her face.

She was still alive, still breathing.

Still here.

“Ugh, fuck,” she sneered. Her mind was stumbling across the whirlwind of thoughts she was unable to control.

Was nowhere in this galaxy safe?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just gonna... repeat this for those of you that don't read beginning notes ;)  
> Think R2D2 in different colors for her droid.  
> And yes, R for Rayla, C for Callum, 7 for their birth month of July.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally chapter 4!! I'd like to say we get to Hoth next chapter, but that would make me a liar lol.  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks for all the kind words and encouragements <3

Both the planets Mandalore and Korriban were, unsurprisingly, a dead end. Everywhere Rayla and Soren went was filled with nothing but annoyances. Several times, she had considered telling the general about her run in with Senator Ka’ati. But she couldn’t. He would ask too many questions that she couldn’t answer properly without some sort of self-incrimination.

So she suffered in irritated silence, not even bothering to get off her ship towards the end of their trips. It’s not like Soren would ever know.

Just as she was about to punch the coordinates home from a stop to fill up on fuel, a message dinged up across her windows. Emperor Viren was sending her to Hoth to pick up some sort of blueprint for their current technological project.

 _Avizandum’s Star_ , he called it. It was named after the Dragon King of legends from Xadia.

She’d seen pictures and heard the stories. There used to be dragons on her home planet. They all disappeared without a trace. There were many speculations about what had happened and where they could have gone. She’d even been sent to see if Xadian dragon sightings across the galaxy were true. But, as far as she knew, definitive proof of their continued existence hadn’t been found.

 _Hoth_ of all places. Just another planet in the long list of ones she despised being on.

She threw her hand out at the display board on her left, and a myriad of different coins scattered across the ship's floor in her annoyance. She listened as they rolled about for a few moments. She tilted her head back and pinched her nose.

She punched in the autopilot for the icy planet and got up to eat. Just before she exited the cockpit, she waved her fingers, carefully placing each of the coins into their designated spots. She liked collecting pieces of all the worlds she’d visited, recognizing what each place considered valuable.

With her belly full, she walked towards the bathroom, intent on preparing for bed.

Vibrations reverberated across her spine. A weird tautness made her skin feel brittle elastic. Her head began to pound as she saw flashes of light.

Ringing flooded her ears. Just before it became unbearable, it disappeared.

She scrambled through the halls, in search of the intruder she now felt on her ship. She rounded a corner and came up short.

_Oh, no_. Her mouth was suddenly too dry.

“You’re not really here,” she said slowly, one of her palms scrubbing at her eyes roughly. But when she blinked, he hadn’t moved.

“I’d… Rather we not do this right now,” he sighed, voice tense.

“Yeah, me too,” she deadpanned, pulling down her nightgown.

His hair was wet, droplets of water falling across his shirtless back. She watched muscles move slightly as he continuously shifted.

Was he swimming? Or… She dared not think about it as the rest of his body was hidden behind either a tub or pool.

He turned, watching from the corner of his eye.

She stood up straighter. “How are you here?”

His hand waved about lazily. “Where is _here_ to you? I’m on Katolis, tending to some political meetings. Although, I’m currently in my bathroom. Something tells me you’re nowhere near close to me right now.”

She approached him with caution. He was a feral animal, and she didn’t want to get caught in his rampage. Although, something made her believe she was ensnared by the same trap that was meant for him.

The hunter had become the hunted.

His body was covered by bubbles. Her shoulders drooped marginally in relief and a hint of disappointment.

“I’m on my ship,” she said slowly.

“So, then the Force…” He rubbed a hand across his jawline in thought. She almost laughed at the bubble beard he had created. “It must be the Force linking us together. If either one was doing this, we’d be dead by now.”

She nodded, considering his words. “It would take too much effort. Too much of our life force.”

His grin was bizarre. All blinding teeth. Straining and painful. It failed to reach the sharp darkness that had settled across his eyes. While he appeared relaxed, there was an unseen stiffness she recognized.

He was plastic and it was insulting to her.

She studied his face carefully, the coldness of his tub against her shins as she struggled to get closer. His words registered. He was on Katolis. “You… don’t have to pretend with me,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “I know you, just like you know me.” She sat on the porcelain ledge, biting her lip.

Could she reach out? Trace the planes and angles of his body with her fingertips? Follow the trails left by water and soap to the darkness that lurked beneath the surface?

Would he let her?

“I…” he trailed off. His smile fell away. She noticed the tiredness that had washed over him. So much of him, his charisma and his grandeur, was an act created for the culture of politics.

She didn’t envy him for that.

Her heart began to pound, filling the silence of the room. Could he hear it as clearly as she? Feel it against his chest the way she had occasionally felt his?

She was terrified of this bond forming before her eyes, persistently unraveling the walls she had crafted across a lifetime. She thought they were indestructible, constructed with metals refined by pain and betrayals. But they were nothing more than flimsy cloth, burning to ashes from the roaring blaze he had introduced.

It was difficult to swallow. She knew what she wanted to say, but the words hung heavily between them. She saw bursts of his life before her in puzzle pieces. She had just enough to gather a rough picture, but it wasn’t all that she needed.

She wanted more.

And judging by the intensity of his look, he felt the same thing.

She cleared her throat, desire to distract from the redness on her face overwhelming. “Move over,” she ordered.

He wiggled backwards, leaning against the back of his tub. She carefully lowered herself down, surprised by the lukewarm water soaking through her night clothes. Some sloshed over the edge and onto her floor.

Their eyes met, and she inhaled sharply.

“Who the fuck are you _really_?"

His bark of laughter echoed around them. "Your enemy, I suppose. At least, that’s what _you_ keep telling me. This is where you threaten to kill me, right?"

She rolled her eyes, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Don't tempt me."

He mused his hair, some sticking up. She almost tipped forward to flatten them back down but decided against it. They stared at one another for a beat too long. The awkwardness was broken by his playful splash of water.

She sputtered, affronted. “What’s your problem!” she hissed, tempted to get out and walk away from him.

“You’re looking at me like someone died,” he joked.

But her stomach clenched uncomfortably. Someone _was_ dying. How long could she pretend that it wasn’t happening? Would Emperor Viren kill her before Lady Lune disappeared into the void of space completely, and only Rayla remained?

He cleared his throat at her change in mood and stared at the ceiling. “Tell me about your planet?”

Her smile was bitter. “Xadia or Dromund Kaas?”

“Which one is your home?”

“I don’t have one.” Her toes curled inwards. “But I will tell you of both if you tell me more about Katolis.”

He nodded, failing to suppress a smile. “Deal.”

He launched into an epic tale of Katolis and its history as he’d experienced it. She learned of his father and his brother. The unfortunate passing of his mother. The intricacies of court that he was captive to. His favorite places on the planet, his favorite foods.

It seemed as if he would never run out of steam, plowing through bits of his life. He helped her piece together the puzzle the Force had thrown at her, but it wasn’t nearly enough to explain the yearning in him.

Then he stopped abruptly. Claimed to have grown tired of his own voice. He urged her to speak, intently listening to her own story.

She spoke of the fuzzy memories she had regarding Xadia. The dreariness of Dromund Kaas and its hostile inhabitants. Words fell so freely, she wondered where they had been hiding within her. But he didn’t seem to mind.

Eventually, she trailed off. Millions of other things swam about her mind, but something within screamed to stop. She had already given too much of herself to him. To divulge anymore would be detrimental.

She shouldn’t be doing this.

He was her enemy, destined to die by her hand.

She would do it eventually because she had to.

She looked down at her palms, shriveled by the water that had long since gone cold.

“I’m going to have to kill you,” she said softly, watching her breath stir up the little soap suds around her legs.

He whispered back, “I know.” She looked up at him, watching his ears turn red under her stare. “W-What?” he asked, rubbing his shoulder.

 _I don’t want to_.

She couldn’t tell him that.

She needed to go. She had a mission on Hoth that inevitably involved killing his allies. Just as he had political missions to take down hers.

But she wanted to stay here in this tub with him, legs so achingly close to touching that she could feel the heat of his skin through the water. She wanted to trade more stories, watch him stumble over his words when she was too blunt and pushy.

The troubles of the galaxy had disappeared, washed away like the dirt beneath her fingernails within the bathwater.

She wanted to halt time, hold this sense of discovery.

Her ship beeped, indicating low fuel. She had to get up and punch in coordinates for a refueling station nearest to her. But she couldn’t find it within herself to move. Why had she sat down in the tub with him? Why had she let reality escape her for a moment?

She realized she was suddenly tired. Too Tired to fight the paradox within her. Maybe that was why she hadn't walked away when everything in her said she needed to. For _both_ their sake. 

She licked her lips quickly. He was too close, too bare. She felt the water disturbances of his shifts against the apex of her thighs. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of the way her gown clung to her. The coolness of the air against her chest. Her hand slipped under the water, fingers pressing against herself in a futile and subtle attempt to calm the pounding that had begun between her legs.

He noticed the movement and gave a funny little smile. He was urging her to do inappropriate things, inching closer. The mischievous look was purely him. Gone was the overly charming and artificial Senator Ka’ati.

 _This_ was someone else.

This was…

“ _Callum_ ,” she breathed, reaching out to touch him in a snap decision. But he was whisked away at a rough inner yank. She teared up, falling forward against the spot where he had just been. She could feel the lingering traces of his skin against her own. She stumbled out of the tub, dripping water everywhere as she searched for any other trace of him.

But he was gone, and she was running out of fuel.

Alone with a desperate need her hands wouldn’t ever fully satisfy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School has been a shit fest, but we keep on writing!!  
> Hope you enjoy <3 Thanks everyone for the kind words! They always help me push forward.

Rayla stared down at the forested planet of Malastare with distaste. She wanted to be back in her bed, but it seemed the Force had other plans. It had been a few days since she’d gotten the ping that her fuel was low, and now she was running the risk of being stranded.

She had stopped at several other refueling stations, but they hadn’t had what her ship needed in order to stay viable on Hoth. Some fuels froze on the icy planet if the ship didn’t fly often enough.

The planet’s sky was a gloomy mauve during the day, she recalled as she stepped out of her ship. The refueling station was filled with Stormtroopers and other Empire officials. She went up to one of the higher-ranking officers and flashed her badge.

Immediately, they stood at attention. “What can we help you with, Ser?”

“Fuel her up. I’m going to go get a drink.”

She stalked away, wondering if grumpiness had always been her state of being. Had she just never noticed?

Rounding a corner to slip through the bar’s back entrance, she came up short just before running into someone. She almost raised a hand to her face to ensure her mask was properly in place.

“Why the fuck are you here?” she snapped.

“Why am I— _Me?_ I’m a representative for Katolis, what do you mean? Of course, I’m here. Why are _you_ here?” he said hurriedly, and she noticed the vague panic in his eyes.

She shook her head and pointed at the ground. “No, why are you _here_. Of all the damned planets, why _this_ one?” Her voice cracked a bit at the end. She mentally smacked herself.

There was no place for weakness within her.

Her mind had been a jumbled mess since she’d last seen him. Thought she hated to admit it, she’d thought about going to Katolis to track him down. Actually, she had even pushed in the appropriate coordinates. She had been inches away from pressing in the autopilot button before her mind caught up to her body.

She didn’t understand the way she was feeling, and she wanted answers. The only way to get them was from him.

“The Force wills it.” His smile was strange, as if he himself was struggling with the same thought. He gestured at a symbol hanging above the backdoor. “That’s a Rebellion insignia, you know.”

She jerked her head towards the massive flags flapping in the wind above them. “And _those_ are the Empire’s insignia.”

Sometimes, she absolutely despised the speed in which they could travel. Without hyperspace jumping, he’d still be stuck on Katolis.

Who knows where she would be, though?

“You need to _go_ ,” she said, pointing to the tanker behind her. “You know that’s under tight Imperial control, right?”

“And _you_ need to go,” he said, pointing in the opposite direction. “The Rebellion is about to launch an attack on said very tightly controlled Imperial tanker.”

She gritted her teeth, slapping a hand against her forehead. At least her ship would be finished filling up before a battle broke out. “You can’t do that. Those stormtroopers are going to decimate whoever you send in! Malastarian fuel is way too precious a commodity to let Rebels take it.”

“And Malastarian fuel is also way too precious a commodity that we _have_ to take it.”

It was then she noted the feathered lilac headdress he wore. His cloak reminded her of the images she’d seen of Jedi, except his wasn’t an unassuming color. It matched the vividness of his eyes. His lilac and fuchsia shirt seemed to be made of some type of light silk, hugging his frame nicely. His pants were white, and his brown boots had what looked to be green stitching to pair with the cape.

She frowned at the extravagance. “You’re not very inconspicuous dressed like that.”

He cleared his throat, eyes darting back and forth. “I’m here on a diplomatic visit.”

“Of fucking course you are. You just _happen_ to be here when things go to shit, and Katolis will get to yell at the Empire for not being more careful with their prince and senator,” she snorted in disbelief.

How many people were secretly Rebels, using the exact same tactics to get away from Emperor Viren’s immediate wrath?

“Convenient, isn’t it?”

She gave a noncommittal shrug. “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that.”

“You’re not going to try and stop us?”

She exhaled forcefully at the stark smugness on his face. “Why didn’t you ask _before_ you told me, the Emperor’s literal personal assassin, about Rebellion plans?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but two different shouts cut him off.

“Senator!”

“Ser!”

They whipped around to opposite sides, finding themselves blocked in by both their allies. Her stomach sank at the realization of what she’d been doing.

Chatting up her mortal enemy like they were out for drinks and not amid a bloody and ugly war.

She was an idiot.

She lit her lightsabers, using the Force to throw both of them at the two troopers before her. They embedded through their chest and the buzzing of hers blade against the ground gave her chills. She knew it was only a matter of time before more came back. She didn’t have the luxury to bother with the Rebels, but she felt Callum’s back against her own. She started in surprise at the contact.

She spun around, not expecting the protective stance he’d taken, arms outstretched.

“You want to lower your weapons,” he said lowly at the three Rebels. “And forget you ever saw Lady Lune.”

“I want to lower my weapons,” they parroted. “And forget I ever saw Lady Lune.” The trio walked away in a daze that she immediately recognized.

Pieces of flashes she had seen, sounds she’d heard when touching him came back with a painful clarity. “You’re a Jedi,” she deadpanned, the betrayal stinging.

He shook his head at her, calling one of her blades out of the fallen stormtrooper’s chest and into his palm. “I never completed my training. Master Ibis, who had been tasked with teaching me, disappeared when the Empire arose. I can only hope he survived Order 66.” He gazed at her in obvious interest.

_Order 66._

The fateful protocol bringing the mass genocide of the Jedi and the fall of the Galactic Republic. The words made her shiver. She had been too young to remember much of the days before the Empire. Several faces came to mind, but she squashed them down ferociously.

Emperor Viren had saved her when everyone she’d loved had died.

She owed him her life.

The second saber she’d thrown flew into her palm. Once it was hooked onto her belt, she gestured for her other one Callum held. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

“You know I was.” His lips twitched upward as he reached for something behind him. He pulled what seemed to be his own lightsaber out, the hilt an interesting curve she’d never seen before. “There’s this... Tradition that Jedi do,” he murmured, even as she began to recognize the sound of footsteps behind her.

The stormtroopers were coming.

“They called it the _Concordance of Fealty_. It’s meant to show a sacred, reciprocal bond.” His eyes cut into hers as he offered what his lightsaber. “You exchange lightsabers, taking the other person’s as if it was your own.”

Her nerves fluttered against her ribs, bile rising in a panic.

She swallowed thickly. Lightsabers were an extension of self. The thought of giving hers away, the ones she had built with her own hands was frightening.

He was giving a piece of himself to her, asking for the same in return.

Could she do it?

“And what will people say when they notice my lightsabers aren’t the same anymore?” she countered, crossing her arms protectively.

He remained silent. His sloped hilt nestled against the palm of a waiting lilac glove. Urging her to take a chance.

Was the risk worth it?

The idea was agonizingly intimate as dismay and anticipation clung to her back.

A blaster went off behind her, and she swiped his offered weapon, lighting and using it to deflect the lasers. She was blinded temporarily by the splendid violet that spilled forth from Callum’s lightsaber. She wasn’t used to having two different colored blades, but the contours of his hilt felt comfortable.

Like it had always belonged to her.

She heard the activation of another saber behind her, the one that _used_ to be hers.

But now it was his.

He held an irreplaceable part of her, just as she held an irreplaceable part of him. It wasn’t simply about the physical items exchanged but something _more_.

She just wasn’t exactly sure what _more_ was yet.

Her snarl was victorious. She rushed forward, kicking out at the trooper nearest to her. Two came at her, batons twirling, but she Force pushed them back, seeking a bit more room.

She launched into a side aerial, heat from the blaster shots making her giddy. It had been some time since she’d last gotten into an intense fight.

She gripped the first free hand she found, skipping back just barely to stab her new purple lightsaber straight through a throat. Then, she yanked it towards herself, severing the head partially. With that momentum, she tossed the saber straight into the forehead of the stormtrooper advancing on Callum.

Before the body crumbled, he grabbed the embedded hilt and threw it back at her.

She smiled in thanks, shaking some of the hair that had fallen from her braid out of her face. She glanced around, taking in the three troopers left. She deflected the stream of lasers, using her other hand to Force choke the one closest to her right. Her hand collapsed into a fist, and whoever she was affecting fell onto the floor.

She flipped forward, pushing extra power into her leap so she ended up behind her last enemies. She stabbed through their stomachs, shaking her head in annoyance.

Why would anyone ever try to engage her especially after they saw her blades?

She watched as Callum pulled his blaster and shot through the remaining stormtrooper’s chest. He turned to her, chest heaving and eyes wild with excitement she felt echoing in her own body.

His smile was small as he tapped against her helmet. “It’s a shame this covers your eyes.”

“It covers more than my eyes,” she deadpanned, crossing her arms.

He extended her crimson lightsaber back, offering her a chance to rescind the exchange. But she shook her head deliberately. His fingers closed around it tightly as he brought it back to his chest. She would accept his initial offer to trade lightsabers.

Consequences be damned.

“I am no traitor to the Empire,” she warned him seriously. “And I will _not_ help whatever suicide plan you Rebels have concocted here.” She turned around and began to stalk away. She paused just before exiting the darkened alleyway. “But if I were you, I’d try and maybe go after the tankers they have stored away in the jungles behind the Methane Waste pools.”

“Rayla,” he murmured.

But she held up a hand to stop him. “That’s not my name, Senator Ka’ati. It’ll do you well to remember as much.”

She tossed the credits haphazardly at the refueling team when she got back to her ship and stomped the whole way to the cockpit. She threw her lone red saber across the hallway with growl.

Even if she found herself in the midst of a whole new universe, she had a feeling she could never escape the Force’s endless song.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dude. School. Finals. Big yikesies.  
> I know updates have been slow, but I've been working on my piece for the Rayllum Zine and some original works! I will continue updating this story, but I'll have more time. I can't wait to share more with you as I have some... p l a n s for us.  
> Thank you everyone so much for reading and commenting. Your kind words and excitement make me want to write more AND better!  
> Also... Elite... Here's Hoth for you ;)

Her mission on Hoth was surprisingly straightforward if not unnecessarily extensive. It took her weeks to track down the exact location of the informant, but once she did, the blueprints were easy to obtain. The information inside lined up with what Emperor Viren had told her. She didn’t understand half the technical jargon, but she recognized some of the words.

She trudged back to her ship against a growing blizzard. But something felt wrong. All of the messages she was trying to send through her holowatch were failing. She wasn’t in the best location, but her signal wasn’t showing impossible to transmit.

The pit in her stomach was beginning to grow.

This had happened before plenty of times.

If the Emperor was displeased with her recent performances, he’d leave her stranded on a planet, cut off from outside aid. Her ability to make it back home was penance. Nothing about the incidents were ever spoken, but the little ugly gleam in his eye whenever she returned was enough indication that it was purposeful and angry.

She was tempted to destroy the plans she held out of pure spite, but that would cause more trouble than it was worth. Instead, she sent them out once more as if she was offline. The contents were saved until she was reconnected to the Imperial network.

Who knew how long that would be?

She rolled her eyes at the Emperor’s pettiness. When was the last time he ever did anything besides sit on his ass and let Darth Dia run the Empire?

She began to shiver as night rapidly crawled across the icy wasteland.

Her stupid ship was gone, probably stolen away by Kasef.

 _He would’ve liked that, wouldn’t he?_ she snarled at herself.

Hoth was devoid of higher functioning life forms. She was going to have to get creative with her solutions. She began the long trek towards the mountains where she had seen caves on her online map earlier.

The ice beneath her feet gave way, and she tumbled into a cave.

Trails of blood surrounded her. 

She punched at the snowy ground with a growl. She was probably in a wampa cavern. The predatory animals reminded her of the stories told about Xadian yetis. Both had shaggy white fur, sharp teeth, and piercing claws. Hopefully it wouldn’t come back until she had secured a better safe route.

She snapped open her holowatch. She didn’t bother dialing any of the numbers she had saved. Everyone would be useless, especially in a place as desolate and far out as Hoth. Digits flickered in the back of her mind, and she punched them in without thinking.

Her finger hovered over the call button.

She snapped her device shut with the Force, half tempted to throw it into a wall.

Instead, she hooked it onto her belt, and inhaled deeply.

She would survive and escape just fine on her own.

It had been five grueling days of fending off monsters and keeping her body warm enough to ensure the retainment of most appendages. Her strength was nonexistent as was her will to press onwards. She was _tired_ and bloodied and so cold.

Callum flickered before her, but she was far too delusional. She couldn’t tell when he was real and when he was imagination.

“Rayla? Rayla! Where are you?” he screamed into her ear, but she couldn’t do anything more than shiver.

After he had long since disappeared and with a surprising burst of clarity, she finally caved in and called him on her holowatch, his number having hovered over the screen since she’d realized Emperor Viren’s punishment.

“C-Callum,” she chattered. “Hoth. Help.”

“Wait, Rayla!” he called out as the holowatch balanced precariously on frozen fingers. Not even the warmth of her lightsabers could save her now.

“P-Ping lo-ocation.” She collapsed back into a snowbank as the connection continued.

Sleep. She needed to sleep.

“Don’t fall asleep! Hold on, hold on. _Wait for me_.”

But his words became a repeating lullaby spiraling into nothingness alongside her.

When Rayla woke up, she was met with a pristine white room, not unlike the entirety of Hoth itself. The only color a large tub probably made of onyx. She almost wanted to call it a small pool of sorts because of its size. So luxurious and wasteful for only one person’s use.

What had happened?

Everything was still too cold.

She grabbed a white bottle on the nightstand and poured it into the cup next to it. Emerald wine spilled out, and she exhaled deeply. It was her favorite, but the longer she stared at the green liquid, the more upset she became. Her mind was filled with other emeralds, scanning across her face intently to ensure she was relatively unharmed.

She approached the bathtub, turning the water as hot as it would go. If her teeth hadn’t been clicking, she might have laughed.

All she wanted was to feel normal again.

She settled into the steaming bath, alcohol in hand.

But no matter how long she sat, raising the temperature of the water when it got too cool, she knew she’d never be the same.

She had never been so close to dying before.

She groaned and dunked her head underwater. The heated sting relaxed her muscles, even as she yelled obscenities into the water. Her lungs were about to give out when she breached the surface with a desperate gasp. It turned into a disbelieving laugh as a tension danced along her veins. Something pulled at her heart almost uncomfortably.

It had become a familiar feeling.

She tilted her head back, eyes shutting. “I’m tired of your fucking ghost,” she whispered into the empty room.

“But I’m not a ghost.”

She snapped up, hands moving to cover her chest. She turned to the side, looking at the profile of Senator Ka’ati. He rested against one of the walls, arms crossed loosely across his chest as a foot was propped up.

He was a bloody dawning come to announce the beginning of a reckoning.

His circlet was lined by orange gems, probably garnets. In the middle of his forehead was a brilliant crimson ruby. His hair had gotten longer since she’d last seen him, waves of chocolate brushing up against the nape of his neck and the tops of his shoulders. Some of it was braided, jewels glittering at the slight movement of his head.

His cape was a red so rich it was nearly black. When he shifted slightly, she noticed the speckled gold, as if someone had haphazardly flung paint onto it. His long-sleeved shirt was a vivid blue like the turquoise of the night sky before it morphed back to its normal sunny shade. A golden sash wrapped around his waist.

His pants matched the jewel on his head, fiery and vibrant. They disappeared beneath his combat boots, the same color as his cape.

He looked every bit the senator and prince he was. Powerful and regal. But there was a deadliness to him she couldn’t properly place.

It made her mouth water.

Her arms tightened across her chest as gentle claws played within her. Twirling and lending to the beginnings of a new sort of heat between her legs.

The redness across her skin had nothing to do with him, she told herself. It was simply the temperature of her water.

She almost wished she hadn’t regained coherence.

She asked slowly, “Did you _actually_ come for me or is this just another projection?”

“It’s really me,” he sighed, voice tense.

“You saved me.”

It was a statement.

“Yes.”

“You don’t look properly dressed for Hoth,” she joked weakly, pressing her back more closely against the onyx of his tub.

“I came as fast as I could. Didn’t have time to change out of all this.”

“Oh.” She shifted, some water sloshing up.

He turned to her, eyes widening as he realized her state of undress. His mouth popped open with a soft gasp, and his gaze traced her body languidly. She felt it surely as if he’d taken a calligraphy pen, dripping in decadent ink, and dragged it across her skin.

Marking her.

She resisted the urge to shiver, finding the situation ridiculous.

He must’ve thought the same thing. His lips kicked into a half smile. “Are we only ever going to meet under strenuous circumstances?”

“The Force willing,” she said sarcastically.

He hummed and pushed away from the wall. Turned to face her.

She gripped the lip of the tub to hide the slight tremble in her free hand. Nails of her other arm dug into the skin right below her shoulder. It would leave a mark, but the pain helped her keep steady.

She peeked up at him. Nerves made her voice wobble.

“Come here.”

There were no soap suds to hide her as they had hidden him.

She glanced over to the bedside table, noticing her mismatched twin blades. She thought back to the absolute trust she’d placed in him by giving away one of her lightsabers. In some ways, it had been harder than facing him naked.

He did as she commanded, boots heavy against the floor. He leaned down. And she couldn’t help herself. She shifted onto her knees, careful not to slip. Both of her hands reached up to cup his face. The air against her breasts was uncomfortable, nipples beginning to harden.

But his gaze remained on hers.

She rubbed her thumbs under his eyes, as if to wipe away nonexistent tears she felt beating against her eyes.

His brows crumbled along with her heart.

She pulled him closer to her, sinking down to sit once more. Following in suit, he dropped into a squat. Her fingers danced along his brow, his cheekbones. The dip of his nose. Her index pressed into the middle of his lips. Trails of water marred his face.

He was glistening.

“Callum,” she whispered.

His name was indulgent syrup, sliding down her throat and settling low in her gut.

He kissed her finger, took it into his mouth. Curled his tongue around it in a promise. Her sigh bordered on a whimper at the foreign sensation.

His eyes slid shut, and he rested his head against hers. His hands wrapped around the bathtub ledge so tightly that the color faded from his knuckles.

She reclaimed her appendage, grasping at one of his wrists. She tugged it away from the edge, tracing the lines across his palm.

He was so _warm_.

“I thought…” he began, whisper like a blaster shot in the quietness.

“What would it have mattered to you if I died?” she countered. “By all means, we’re strangers. What would you have lost?”

He watched her miserably. “Everything.”

Her breath caught, and something in her shriveled up in shame. They really weren’t strangers. More like two puzzle pieces marveling at how they fit so perfectly despite the differences in their content.

The comfort she had frantically sought within the scalding water was excruciatingly easy to find in him. In his unwavering presence.

_What would it feel like to…_

She gulped, licking at the pads of his splayed hand. Then, she very deliberately guided him towards her breast. She was gentle, giving him time to pull away.

“Rayla.” It was reverent and cautious.

She coaxed at his other hand in response, guiding it beneath the water and against the heat between her thighs. “Please, Callum. I want…”

She wanted so many things. Too many things. She couldn’t even begin to articulate properly what she was trying to convey.

She was so _hungry_.

She tried to tell herself it was purely physical, but she knew it was a lie. There were all these emotions wrapping around her. Suffocating and delicious. She had never felt like this before. Her life had been static. The only problems were completing missions and getting trained.

But things had changed.

She was not at the center of her world anymore. Rather, it was a place shared between her and Callum. Her difficulties now involved a dynamic _other_. And she was beginning to realize it wasn’t just him. But Emperor Viren, Darth Dia, Kasef, everyone she’d ever interacted with.

Though Rayla had traversed across the stars, she’d never realized how infinite the galaxy was until she was wrapped in Callum’s arms like this.

It was difficult to detangle these feelings. They had clawed their way out of the hole she’d dug them in. Some were novel and others had weathered over time. But there were too many to even begin properly assigning names.

She would sort them out later when the fuzziness in her brain cleared away with the aid of his hands.

Callum leaned forward, kissing her neck unhurriedly. He brushed a finger over her nipple, lightly at first. She sat up straighter, and his nail scraped against her. Once it had hardened into a bullet, he pinched tenderly, rolling away the slight jolt of pain that slipped into dark pleasure.

“Tell me this is okay,” he puffed into the dip of her shoulder. Nuzzled his nose into her.

She tugged at the collar of his shirt, and he crawled into the tub with her. Water splashed everywhere, an awakening. She blinked some drops away from her eyelashes.

“Tell me I didn’t just ruin really expensive clothes,” she countered jokingly.

His untroubled laugh burst from deep in his chest. The spreading and unsure smile overtaking his expression sunk into her bones like comforting rain.

Something swelled against her ribs, and she threw her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply. His hand on her chest trailed down and around, pressing against the small of her back once he met with her hip. His searing fingers urged her closer and closer.

They were adversaries, fated to kill one another at the behest of natural order. The division of “us” and “them” that formed over time, separated by a chasm only closed by blind leaps of faith. It was written in the stars that they would fall at one another’s hand.

“We’re enemies,” she reminded him weakly.

“Mm, are we? Because right now I don’t feel like that,” he countered, biting down gently on her lower lip.

Her legs fell open in response, welcoming the lower half of his body against hers. However, he barely inched forward, allowing room for his thumb to make smoldering circles against her bundle of nerves. She gasped into his mouth, coaxing her tongue against his own.

There was a hardness forming along her thigh, but he halted her movements to alleviate him.

“It’s okay,” he murmured against the moist skin above her breast, “This… This is about you.”

Embers inside her belly quivered at the sweetness of his words.

He kissed her nipple, and she inhaled sharply. She scrambled to tell him, “I-I’ve never…”

He looked up at her, even as his mouth continued to move against her. “I haven’t either,” he rumbled, vibrations sending zings across her body.

Underneath the new weight of his eyes, she felt extremely shy. She pushed at his shoulders slightly, needing room to breathe, to think. She wanted to hide, scuttle away into darkness so deep he couldn’t ever follow. Where he couldn’t see the damage both within and on her, a bold and loud map of her merciless life.

“It’s okay to be afraid.” His breath on her was electricity and wind, the beginnings of a fearsome lightning storm.

“I’m not!” she denied vehemently. But the normal bite in her tone was gone.

He withdrew marginally, the tip of his tongue tapping against her perked breast. The patterns he had been tracing along her bud slowed to a near halt and became fleeting.

But then, she also didn’t want him to stop, the brief contact not near enough to what she needed.

“You’re afraid, too,” she realized. She leaned down to kiss his forehead.

He confirmed, “Terrified.”

His eyes reminded her of a dream she’d had.

Red strings of their lives had entwined so closely she couldn’t recognize which was hers or his. But she had also watched them burn away to ashes, scattered by solar winds until all that remained was one. She could never tell which one of them it belonged to, though.

She placed her palm against his chest, feeling his heart beating as rapidly as her own. Noticed the contrast between them. His skin was a radiant and gentle sunlight compared to the pale and unforgiving moonlight of her own.

She and Callum were binary stars caught in one another’s relentless gravity. Trapped in a doomed orbit in which only one could survive. It was as the Force willed it.

Death would forever be their interlocked collision course.

It was inevitable.

 _They_ were inevitable.

Her hands slid to his biceps where they transformed into determined fetters.

Time would freeze here with the endless winter of Hoth. And in this frozen moment, she was determined to find release.

She licked her lips in resolve and met his eyes.

“Touch me, Callum.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo a couple of thiiiings. At first, I was going to just kinda skip over smexy times and be cruel. But if you guys so desire... Would you be interested in a direct continuation instead of a time skip? ;3


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. As an overwhelming positive "yes" to my question last chapter, here you go!
> 
> May the 4th be with you and happy Revenge of the 5th!!  
> (except I'm a day late, but we'll keep that between us)

Rayla could feel the skin of her cheeks burning as fiercely as his own. He stared into her eyes, pushing closer against her body, crowding her space.

His thumb left her as his hand splayed across her lower belly. She wiggled her hips, brows furrowing at the loss of contact.

“How… How did you get this scar?” he asked.

It took her a moment to move through the haze. The collapsed flesh hidden beneath his palm had healed well, but there was no denying its presence. She grimaced and squeezed his arm. “Viren. I was sparring against his guards, and he nicked me. Told me I needed to be more aware of my surroundings.”

“It looks more than a nick.”

She shrugged, remembering the searing pain. Her legs collapsing beneath her. The stinging in her head from the impact of the ground. His laughter cutting across the chaos in her mind.

_Get up, Lady Lune. If that’s all it takes for you to go down, you’re more useful to me dead._

“To show pain is weakness the Emperor does not tolerate. To treat it as anything more than a minor inconvenience is to yield to my enemy,” she said softly, running a hand through his hair.

He took a deep breath and his chin dipped into the water. Warm lips moved gently against the warped skin partially submerged. He continued to kiss his way upwards to another mark across her shoulder.

“Here?” he breathed.

Her skin erupted in goosebumps. “U-Uh that one?” Which one? She couldn’t really focus on what he was asking as she soaked in the feel of him against her.

 _Oh_. “That’s from a suspiciously well misplaced shot from Kasef. He claims to have been aiming for a Rebel cruiser behind me.”

“I’m sure he was very sorry,” he said sarcastically. “His reputation precedes him.”

“Yeah, he’s a little shithead.”

“What about this one?” A gentle nail against her shoulder.

“Bounty hunter. They stabbed me with their electrostaff. Their group had stolen cargo, and there were civilians on the ship. I intercepted them.” She smiled ruefully. “And the team all looked worse than I did by the end of it.”

Then his fingers ghosted against her face. “And these two?”

Fearful and angry eyes had traced her movements. The sound of clashing sabers. Sobbing.

“I… I found an ex-padawan. We had— _have_ order to kill any known Jedi and their affiliates. She rushed me and managed to scratch me.” His thumb gently rubbed back and forth against her cheek. He leaned in and gave a gentle, lingering kiss against her lips. “I let her go,” she whispered against him.

He pulled away in surprise. “You let her go?”

She closed her eyes, ashamed of her failure. “I’ve let them _all_ go. Every single one I’ve run into.”

“How many?” he said against her neck.

“Too many. Dozens.”

He chuckled. “You do know how assassins work, right?”

“I am painfully aware,” she sighed.

He looked as if he wanted to ask her more but decided against it. “And what about that other one?” he asked, tapping against her jaw.

She snorted. “A lack of discipline. I had a zit, and I wouldn’t stop messing with it.”

He kissed her again, index fingers trailing across her facial markings and then stroking her horns. She bucked at the novel sensation, yanking away as her chest heaved.

“I-I’m not… They’re…” she swallowed thickly. “No one has ever…”

She turned away, trying to cover her embarrassment. But there was no where to hide. He filled the room, her mind.

“They’re velvetier than I thought,” he said in strange awe. “Have you ever used them to defend yourself?”

She shook her head. “Haven’t needed to.”

“Hm,” he hummed, putting pressure beneath her thighs to encourage her to sit on the ledge. She did so, feet swaying in the warm water. The air was cool against her damp skin, but not uncomfortable. Not as it had been before.

He gently urged her legs further and further apart. She complied readily, but her hands against the ledge were beginning to cramp from how tightly they held the obsidian. He wrapped his hands around her wrists.

Warm breath brushed against her, and she found it harder and harder to breathe. “Do you trust me?” he asked, lips a whisper along the apex of her thigh.

“Callum,” she said, words quivering in terror and anticipation.

Because she _did_ trust him. With everything she had in her and more. And there was no reason to. All he had to do was swipe her holowatch, and he would have information detrimental to the Empire at his exposal. He would just need the right people to hack in and decrypt everything.

But his burning fingertips, encouraging her leg higher and higher up to open herself, were too real, too honest. He brought her other knee to rest on his shoulder and asked her again.

“Do you trust me?”

A finger teased at her folds.

Her head shook against the cool tiled wall. “Do _you_ trust me?” she whimpered back.

“More than myself,” he murmured.

She cried out as his lips closed around her bundle of nerves, fingers digging into the underside of her thigh to keep her from clamming up. Her leg against his shoulder tensed, bringing him closer.

He shifted slightly, and she whimpered at the lost contact. But a knuckle dance back and forth against her as his tongue made shallow stabs between her folds. Then he began to lap at her, long and languid.

This was about _her,_ but she knew he was in charge.

His middle finger teased at her opening, and he looked up at her. “Is… Is this okay?” he asked, pushing into her just barely.

The sensation was foreign but not unwelcomed. She nodded rapidly, fingers interlocking in his hair.

He pushed further in, pressing against her walls as if feeling her out. He repeated the motion again, unhurriedly pumping into her. She shifted, searching for more friction.

“Don’t move too much. You might just fall,” he joked, adding in a second finger.

“Oh,” she breathed, eyes tightly shut as she could focus on nothing more but him.

His mouth continued to make work of her at the rhythm of her fingers. Her hips continually bucked, but his hand against her thigh burned steadily into her skin, urging her to become malleable in his hands.

And she was.

She was his to mold and shape into a beautifully dangerous thing. To break down and create something fragilely new. Something lighter, something closer to peace.

Each touch was a branding that scorched away her self-imposed prison. Revealed scalded, liberated skin. Raw from years of neglect and unseen chains.

She could feel herself tightening against him, the air in the room becoming more difficult to process. Her brain was short-circuiting, intent on reaching the stars before finding release.

“Don’t let me go,” she whimpered. If he did, she feared she would tumble forward into the tub as he had said earlier. But there was a piece of hers that begged him to never let her go back to the Empire. Just keep her entangled with him so tightly that she couldn’t escape.

She was _so_ close, ready to combust at any moment.

But he stopped, waiting for her to find his searing gaze. He knew exactly what she was asking of him. “I won’t,” he promised against her, fingers picking up speed. He sucked on her forcefully, the wanton sounds of their skin and breaths making her head dizzy.

“ _Fuck!”_ she cried, clenched fist against her mouth to muffle the sounds. Her other hand scrabbled around to find something to ground herself as she felt a pulsating buildup low in her gut. She was there, she was _right there_. “I-I… I need—” But what did she need? How could she tell him what she needed when even she wasn’t sure? “ _Please_ , Callum!

“What do you need?”

The words cut through her haze and tears pushed at her eyes. It wasn’t _how can I help you?_ Or _what can I do for you?_

She was completely at his mercy, but there was newfound power in it. They each only had as much control as the other allowed.

They were equals.

“Help me,” she whimpered, and his eyes glistened.

_Help me walk away._

_Help me be strong enough to do the right thing._

_Help me live again._

_Help me find release._

Did he understand what she was asking him? The weight of her desires and dreams? Or maybe he was too caught up in the moment to look beyond her wavering body.

But his smile was sad and beautiful, discerning the confusion and war scribbled across her soul.

“I will,” he promised, curling his fingers upwards as his teeth tugged at her. “I will, Rayla.”

At her name, she fell apart, stars twirling around her as she shot through an unknown galaxy of blistering pleasure. Fire danced along her skin as her body wiggled, searching for equilibrium through the haze of nothingness and intense delight.

“Callum!” she gasped, teeth clenching around her knuckles as her other palm scrabbled at tile to find grounding. Her back arched deliciously as she sought to be both nearer and further from the source of her desire.

She was consumed, damned, and forever changed.

She collapsed against the wall, too much of a gelatinous heap to hide her body like she wanted.

His eyes scanned her body in hungry wonder.

"What?" she whispered, going to cover herself. She was shy once more, wanting to erase both their memories from what had just happened. He reached out to stop her, hooking her second leg over his shoulder.

It was difficult for her to get leverage this way. Difficult to move away.

"You're glowing... Your skin is stardust," he murmured, fingers lightly pressing against her. Splayed across where her heart thundered. "Just... falling from my hands. I can almost _see_ it," he whispered reverently.

“See what?” she asked, voice breaking.

“The stardust in your veins.” He traced different veins and arteries with both hands simultaneous. Her femoral, her carotid. The ones along her wrists. Then back to her heart where his digits rested once more. “You were forged in the light of the stars. Their hope burns in you fiercer than any darkness could swallow.”

But she shook her head, attempting to detangle her legs from his shoulders. “You’re _wrong_.”

She was a coward, masquerading as a proud murderer. Didn’t he recognize the lies she slithered into as if they were her own skin? All newfound independence she had found in his hands began to slip away.

He released her and moved back to give her room. Whatever decision she made was her own, always. And he was making sure she knew that.

“Rayla,” he said, rumblings of his voice reverberating throughout her body. The room. Probably the planet, too, if not the whole damned galaxy.

She hated when he said her name.

Like she was a liberator. Like she was precious. Meant something more.

“Just… Be with me,” he said, and the brilliance of his smile was heartbreaking.

She threw her arms around him, ignoring the splashing water that got into her eyes. “Only for a little bit,” she muttered against his ruined jacket.

A tangled web of lies waited for her in the stars, but for now, she would be content with the truth of his embrace.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. I wanted to say thank you so much to everyone that has commented, kudos'd (kudosed?), and read this story thus far. You maybe noticed this hasn't been updated for about two months. I've been dealing with some intense writer's block. Being able to come back to Ao3 and read over your comments has inspired me to continue to keep going.  
> Thank you for pushing me, and thank you again for your continued support as I kid you not this was written in three hours.
> 
> Please don't ever forget just how important you guys are.
> 
> This next one is to yall.

She stalked through the hallways into Emperor Viren’s throne room, head held high. She had half the mind to toss the physical copy of the blueprints at his feet, but the barest raise of his eyebrows when she offered the holocomm was enough a victory for her.

“Lady Lune,” he acknowledged. “We had anticipated your journey to be…” His eyes flicked to Darth Dia. “Longer.”

Her smile was cutting as she bowed her head. “My Lord has trained me well,” she countered.

She could see pride and annoyance at war on his face as he rubbed his beard. She’d really gotten to him, then. How long had he expected her to be stuck on Hoth? If the date she’d checked this morning was correct, she’d been gone for sixteen days. Nine days had been a battle for survival, one had been full of pleasure, and the other six had been spent on Dromund Kaas trying to gather her wits.

Her gaze flickered between Emperor Viren and Darth Dia. What was next? There were no such things as breaks when it came to her life.

 _No rest for the wicked,_ she thought sardonically.

Darth Dia placed a hand on her hip, offering a mysterious smile at her. “ _I_ expected you to be back sooner from your trip. We heard from the command unit on Dromund Kaas that you came back almost a week ago.”

“I must’ve just… lost track of time,” Rayla said, straightening.

Emperor Viren’s licked his lips, smiling widely. “Time indeed. Ah, my little Jedi Killer. Come.” He stood, gesturing for her to follow.

She trailed a step behind, and he spoke again when they were out of the room. “The attack on the Alderaanian rebel base was a success.”

Her chest tightened. Had Callum not taken her warning to heart?

“Lady Lune. Do you believe the Empire… Us to be evil?”

She balked at the thought. “No, my lord. You saved me.” She just wasn’t sure if this was where she belonged anymore.

He inhaled deeply. “I have fought for years against the hands that would tear our galaxy apart. From the Jedi and the Galactic Senate to the Rebellion. Do you remember Xadia? Before the days of the Empire?”

She swallowed thickly. The planet had been devastated by war, and she remembered the rants her parents had gone on about the Republic. No one had cared about their suffering.

Except the Empire.

“I want nothing more than order and balance. But this is not achievable by sitting idly. Peace cannot be an option without war. You understand this more than anyone, don’t you?”

Bloodied hands holding her face. Asking for her forgiveness.

_Don’t forget us, Rayla. Fight for what is right._

She was ripped from her parent’s arms. But Viren had saved her.

“I understand,” she whispered.

“Violence is not my wish. But the Rebellion has caused me to do things I’ve never wanted. I do not have a choice in the tactics I use. As my Right Hand,” he turned to look at her, gentling patting her head, “you don’t have a choice either.”

She trembled slightly, afraid to hold his gaze but even more fearful of looking away.

“There is no one else I can trust like you, Lady Lune.”

Guilt flooded her stomach. How could she even think about leaving?

Memories of green eyes scanning her intently made her head spin.

The emperor walked forward again, and she followed, feet still dragging. His voice echoed throughout the hallway. “The Empire needs you. _I_ need you. Those suffering from the reckless tactics of the Rebellion need you. There is another child, another young Lady Lune, out there in the galaxy. Many, really. They have all had their family torn apart, their land ravaged. We can end their torment.”

 _Callum_.

She could feel him barely wiggling against the edge of her mind. His name brought warmth throughout her body, but an unspeakable dread soon followed. They came from worlds apart and lived as such. What would a senator, a _prince_ , know about the sufferings of a nobody?

Rayla had become so caught up in her newfound feelings, she had failed to recognize reality. She inhaled deeply. “I…”

She couldn’t leave the Empire. And she was a fool for dreaming of anything else.

“I sense much conflict in you. Are the dreams getting worse?”

“Yes, my lord,” she muttered. The lie covered her tongue in sugar. While the dreams _had_ been coming more frequently, it was Callum and her uncertainty in the Empire that plagued her every moment.

“Do you believe the dark side to be evil? Is that your fear? You do not wish to be evil?”

She pushed her hair over her shoulder, reminding herself that she still had her mask on. She was still safe.

“Evil is not something I concern myself with,” she said honestly. She had seen evil. Danced with it during many a mission. But she wasn’t one to ruminate.

“Then why do you hesitate to embrace the dark side? What is holding you back? The Sith are not evil. It is the Jedi that brought chaos to the galaxy. Darth Dia was manipulated by the Jedi, and her lover was murdered by them.” He clenched his hands. “My own daughter destroyed by the ‘protectors of peace.’ All for tradition.”

“I… I didn’t know that, my lord.”

“The Sith are not evil, Lady Lune,” he repeated, glancing at her. “We embrace our emotions. Our humanity. It fuels us and allows us to protect that which we hold most precious. The light side, the Jedi, ask you to leave yourself behind. What good is it to be the heralds of justice when you care not who you are protecting?”

They came upon a large window, and he gazed down at Exegol. She would never understand why he had chosen it as his planet of operation. It was mostly flat land, filled with ruins, and always storming. What had drawn him to this dying place?

But the darkness beating throughout the air told her all she needed to know.

The Force was strong here, as it was on Dromund Kaas.

“You are needed on Tatooine. There is an uprising that may impact our ability to get resources from the mines. Kasef will be going with you. He is to bring back some of the recruits. Ensure he does so.”

“Yes, my lord,” she mumbled.

“And Lady Lune?” He turned his eyes to her.

She shuddered at the intensity of his gaze. His black sclera and yellow irises had always struck her as unnatural. Darth Dia said it was because of his connection to the dark side.

 _Maybe I don’t want to be a dark side user because I like my eyes_ , she concluded with wild amusement. But the stray thought did little to dampen her mounting terror.

“Do not fail me.”

Rayla ran her hand across her purple lightsaber, feeling the subtle dents and scratches all along the hilt. She wondered how it had obtained these imperfections. How often had Callum used this saber to protect himself?

Her holocomm beeped with another message from Kasef, and she groaned. It was followed by two more dings, and then began to chirp. She opened up the call, wanting nothing more than to toss him out of the ship she was trailing to be eaten by the creatures of space.

“ _What_?” she snarled.

“If I had known you were going to ignore me, I would’ve sat right next to you instead of taking the Star Destroyer.”

Her smile was tight. “I’m sure you’re much more comfortable in the Destroyer than you would be in my ship.”

“But we’re missing out on quality time together. Maybe we—”

She shut her holocomm and threw it across the ship. Hearing it shatter against a wall and fizzle out was intensely satisfying. She leaned back in the pilot chair, inhaling the silence.

Until her holowatch began beeping.

Once more, she opened the call to Kasef’s smirking hologram. “What’s wrong, Lady Lune?”

“Must’ve lost connection on my comm.”

He leaned closer in interest. “Don’t tell me… You’re sulking?” He burst out laughing. “What has the mighty Lady Lune in such bad spirits? I need to congratulate them—”

She snapped the call off, yanking the watch from her wrist and clenched it in her fist. It sparked against her hand, but the slight warmth was nice.

She wasn’t _sulking_.

She tossed the pieces to the ground and then stomped on them. “ _I’m_ not sulking. _You’re_ just pesky.” She inhaled and then Force pushed all the remaining pieces of both her communication devices into the garbage chute.

She laid down, the floor grate cold against her exposed skin. She had extra comms in the ship somewhere that were crosslinked with the ones she had just destroyed. All she needed was to find them. But at least Kasef couldn’t bother her until they were on Tatooine.

Gentle lightning zagged across her body as boots echoed. For a moment, she feared this intruder that had come across her ship undetected, but the uncertainty was squashed almost as quickly as it had risen. She wanted to sit up, stare at the senator in all his glory. But she was too tired, too heavy.

It would hurt more to see him anyways.

She shut her eyes tightly, highly attuned to the new presence. She heard his clothes shifting as he settled on the ground somewhere above. She tilted her head, lightly bumping his. One of his hands idly ran across her hair, rubbing at the base of one of her horns.

The tension from her shoulders melted away as the lightening again coursed through her body, awakening nerves that only existed for his touch.

“He’s right, you know,” Callum said matter-of-factly.

“Who?” she sighed.

“Kasef. You’re pouting.”

She flipped her arm upwards, slapping at his shoulder. “Shut up.”

His fingers kept their ministrations. He hit a particular spot along her horn, and she couldn’t help the groan that burst from her chest.

He paused before doing it again. She squirmed slightly, encouraging him to keep touching her. She was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

This would have to be the last time she allowed him to be so casual. She had work to do, and any distractions had to be purged.

The silence between them stretched as uncertainty, fear, and anger weighed down her gut. Tied her to the floor and sat against her lungs.

The Force was the cruelest thing in the galaxy.

She’d never forgive it for the agony she had to endure.

“So… we’re just going to ignore _that_ , huh?”

Her heart clenched. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hurt colored his voice. “So that’s a yes.”

She was afraid her voice would waver. She took a few breaths to steady herself. Counted to five. “W-What is there to talk about?”

The weight of his sigh echoed within her bones. “Do you regret it?”

She gripped her pants until the feeling of her fingers dissipated. “No,” she whispered. “I don’t. Do you?”

“I only regret that we couldn’t have spent more time together.”

She bit her lip, forcing images of him from her mind. But they kept rising. His fingers disappearing within her. His lips and tongue swimming across her skin. A wicked timber encouraging her to new heights.

_Oh, fuck._

“Senator—”

“Oh, we’re back to that now? You can’t run away from me forever, Rayla.”

There he went again. Using her name. Making her feel safe and whole.

She hated him almost as much as she did the Force.

“I’m not running away from anything, much less you.” Could he hear the lie struggling forth from within her? How her whole being was parading as an indisputable truth?

“Are you sure? What’s wrong?”

She barked a humorless laugh. What was wrong? She had a never-ending list to offer, and he was the majority of her issues at the top. “Why don’t I got ahead and try to count all the stars while I’m at it,” she drawled, waving a hand in the air lazily. “Although I imagine counting stars would be easier.”

“The base on Alderaan was destroyed.”

“I warned you!” She began to sit up, but pressure from his fingertips kept her from shifting.

“The _base_ was destroyed. Everyone made it out alive thanks to you. We managed to protect civilian records that the Empire would use to destroy millions of lives.”

She thought about what Emperor Viren had said. _The unrest throughout the galactic systems was in part because of the Rebellion’s recklessness._

“I’m glad,” she muttered. But that wasn’t quite right. The Empire wasn’t trying to destroy lives. They were trying to fix them. Emperor Viren had said as much. So what types of falsities were the Rebellion spreading amongst their own to brainwash their soldiers? Surely they recognized the order brought about by the imperial reign.

She opened her mouth to voice these thoughts but couldn’t find a way to articulate them properly. She didn’t want to fight.

She just wanted to rest.

“So… plan on getting stuck on Hoth again any time soon? I’m free next week—”

“Senator!” she chided, shaking her head. But there was amusement in her voice she couldn’t hide.

“Does Tuesday work for you?”

She smacked him once more, but he reached up, interlocking their fingers. She contemplated pulling her hand back, but the solace was too much to deny. She would allow herself this last moment.

Her throat clogged up uncomfortably, and she wondered for a moment if someone was Force choking her. But she knew it was her emotions. She shuddered out, “Callum…”

“I know, I know,” he mumbled, and she realized he was just as broken as she was. “I’m here, Rayla.” His whisper seemed loud as a blaster shot.

She shut her eyes tightly as tears rolled across her face. His other hand once more stroked at her hair, and she nuzzled into his head.

When he finally disappeared into the ether, she curled towards where he had just occupied, already missing him. Sobs wracked her body as her fingers sought warmth that no longer existed.


End file.
